Skip to main content

UK tunnel officially opened

UK transport secretary Philip Hammond yesterday cut the ribbon at the Hindhead twin bore tunnel in Surrey, signifying the end of a US$605 million, 1.8 km-long bypass of Hindhead village on the A3 between London and Portsmouth. The new tunnels will be used by 30,000 vehicles/day.
April 20, 2012 Read time: 1 min
UK transport secretary Philip Hammond yesterday cut the ribbon at the Hindhead twin bore tunnel in Surrey, signifying the end of a US$605 million, 1.8 km-long bypass of Hindhead village on the A3 between London and Portsmouth. The new tunnels will be used by 30,000 vehicles/day.

‘This new road will transform journeys on the A3 – improving journey times by around 20 minutes or more at busy periods – and will deliver a threefold return on investment for the economy,” Hammond said. “This cutting-edge road scheme has surpassed expectation in almost every way, and sets a new standard for how vital infrastructure improvements can be delivered,” he added.

Hammond pointed out that the tunnel contains state-of-the-art safety features, including the UK’s first radar-based incident detection system and 100% CCTV coverage.

Another safety feature was the inclusion of Astucia hardwired bi-directional LED road studs to guide motorists safely through the tunnel. A total of 868 of the studs emit a full 180 degrees of illumination when switched from uni-directional to bi-directional delineation should one of the tunnels be switched to contra flow mode.

Related Content

  • How safe are smart motorways?
    March 3, 2020
    A valiant attempt to ease the UK’s congested strategic road system? Or an idea that should never have seen the light of day? Alan Dron reports on the controversy over smart motorways...
  • Asecap debates the future of tolling
    August 23, 2016
    Colin Sowman reports form Asecap’s Study & Information Days event in Madrid. At Asecap’s (the Association of European Toll Road Operators) recent Study and Information Days event there was no doubt about the subject at the top of the agenda: the European Union Directive 23/2014/EU. This will introduce fundamental changes to the concession model under which Asecap members operate more than 50,000km of tolled highways and, in response, it has compiled a report entitled Proposal for a Sustainable Concession Mo
  • ‘Free’ power for signs, shelters and so much more
    March 17, 2016
    David Crawford looks at the sunny side of the street. Solar power has been relatively slow in entering the transport sector, but a current blossoming of activity bodes well for the large-scale harnessing of an alternative energy that is zero-emission at source and, in practical terms, infinitely renewable. Traffic management and traveller information systems, and actual vehicles, are all emerging as areas for deployment. Meanwhile roads themselves are being viewed as new-style, fossil fuel-free ‘power stati
  • Washington State testing Astucia SolarLite road studs
    January 31, 2012
    This weekend, Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) maintenance crews plan to install Astucia SolarLite solar-powered road studs as part of a test project on the centerline of a stretch of SR 530 which has a history of run-off-the-road collisions.